Paralympics Day 6: Giant Slalom Slush
Thursday’s competition in Milan Cortina took place on a messy Giant Slalom course. The event had to be postponed temporarily after the first run for course maintenance. A total of thirteen athletes across all disciplines had disqualifications and DNF designations. Five of the DNF designations came in the Sitting category, which ran last for both runs of the competition.
But the Para Alpine athletes made the most of the circumstances. Thursday’s race saw Ebba Aarsjoe, Veronika Aigner, and Anna-Lena Forster add to their gold medal collections.
After the first run, Austria’s Veronika Aigner held a three-second lead over the Vision Impaired field. Italy’s Chiarra Mazel clawed back half a second on her second run, but it wasn’t enough to catch up to the reigning gold medal champion. Elina Stary came in third for another Austrian 1-3 podium finish.
In the Standing category, Ebba Aarsjoe of Sweden won her third gold medal of the games, besting Russia’s Varvara Voronchikhina by 2.84 seconds. Aurelie Richard of France picked up her 4th medal with her bronze medal finish. She now accounts for 40% of France’s medals at these games.
Aarsjoe avenged her lone DNF result from the 2022 Paralympics. Today, her sister made sure a familiar face would cheer her on–Ebba’s 8-year old self. The homemade poster featured a young, smiling Ebba with the words “Heja Ebba!” [Go Ebba! In Swedish] “I try to still be that girl, and I feel like I am,” Aarsjoe told Olympics.com. “The little Ebba, she loved giant slalom, it's always been my main discipline, so crashing four years ago was heartbreaking, and now I can have revenge.”
Spain’s Audrey Pascual Seco clipped a gate in her first run of the Sitting Giant Slalom, resulting in a DNF with podium-shaking repercussions. Germany’s Anna-Lena Forster led the field in both runs for her second gold medal of the games. Momoka Muraoka finished 1.28 seconds behind for her second silver, while Liu Sitong of China nabbed her fourth bronze medal.
Giant Slalom - Vision Impaired
🥇Veronika Aigner/Guide: Eric Digruber - Austria
🥈Chiarra Mazel/Guide: Fabrizio Casal - Italy
🥉Elina Stary/Guide: Stefan Winter - Austria
Giant Slalom - Standing
🥇Ebba Aarsjoe - Sweden
🥈Varvara Voronchikhina - Russia
🥉Aurelie Richard - France
Giant Slalom - Sitting
🥇Anna-Lena Forster - Germany
🥈Momoka Muraoka - Japan
🥉Liu Sitong - China
Up next: spooky scary schedule
Cue up your second screen, we’ve got a packed competition schedule on Friday, the 13th. With the weather forecast calling for a rainy Saturday, the Para Snowboard Banked Slalom competition has been moved up to Friday morning, airing at 4AM Eastern time. Brenna Huckaby will seek to defend her 2022 gold medal, but she doesn’t come to the starting line feeling pressure.
“For me, it’s just about enjoying the experience,” Huckaby told the Associated Press. "I just feel like I have nothing left to prove. My first Games, I felt like I had to prove myself to my sport. I had to prove myself around my disability, which wasn’t really healthy for me.
“My second Games, I felt like I was proving to myself that I was enough beyond any achievement. For this one, I'm just here. I have nothing left to prove. I'm just excited to be in the experience.”
While weather and course maintenance affected the Snow Cross preparations, the change in the Banked Slalom schedule hasn’t affected the training runs. Zach Miller tells Culxtured each athlete got four practice runs on the course, and will potentially get one more ahead of tomorrow’s timed event.
The Para Biathlon will also resume tomorrow with the Sprint Pursuit. Women’s qualifying will begin at 4:45 AM Eastern, with finals beginning at 7:30 AM Eastern.
